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Topic: wedding in Dubrovnik (Read 153073 times)

Helen

Thanks to everyone for sharing all this information. My fiance and I are hoping to hold our wedding in Dubrovnik in Sept 2007 and are headed there next week to check out venues and talk to planners. I'll share any insights following our trip.

mares30

sorry anne, I can't be of help re: hair and tan - but would appreciate tips when you do find them - i'm getting married in dubrovnik the month after you!

we're just about to make final decision re: dinner reception venue - having not been to either the palace or labirint - we're struggling to decide (last time we were in dubrovnik was 2003) - any tips from folk who have experienced both? we'll marry in st. blaise church, with drinks reception after at sponza palace - so advantage of labrint is that we can walk there - but if Vala beach club at palace is truly great we would make the effort to get guests there by boat.

mia0514

My husband and I are from New York. We were married last August in Dubrovnik – it was one of the best decisions of our lives.

Following a trip to the Caucasus last spring, we decided on a destination wedding. As a child growing up in the former Yugoslavia, I vacationed in Dubrovnik several times and remembered it as a fairy-tale town. After looking at various websites, virtual tours and pictures of the city, my husband became equally excited about a Croatian wedding. The planning process was somewhat demanding, but also fun. If you are considering a wedding in Dubrovnik, do not fear. You can do most of the planning yourself, but if you need help, you have an option of contracting one of the local wedding planners for the more challenging aspects of the ceremony and/or reception.

After days of looking at different venues in Dubrovnik, Nautica, Dubrovnik Palace, and Labyrinth came out as our leading choices. We contacted all three venues via email to get a better sense of their organization and prices. We were very perplexed with Nautica’s pricing system, but the restaurant looked very nice on their website. Moreover, the sales representative at Nautica seemed somewhat unprofessional in her manner and did not inspire much confidence. Labyrinth also looked inviting, but the price there was 6,700 Euro minimum, which was on the steeper side considering that we were to have no more than 50 guests.

After reviewing all the comments and this board (very helpful), we also contacted Dubrovnik Palace. We didn't like the fact that it was several miles away from the town, but we thought we would give it a shot. The Dubrovnik Palace representative, Ines Prescanin, is an extremely able and competent wedding planner; she responded to all our emails almost immediately. She sent us dozens of pictures, menues, etc. We felt that the planning would be a breeze if she were to help us. The cost of food was also quite affordable at about 60 Euro per person. Most importantly, pictures of the Vala Beach Club looked great. We were quite confident that Vala would be a perfect place, but we thought we would not make the final decision until we saw all the venues in person.

A month later, we were on the plane to Croatia. We took 10 days off work with the goal of finalizing our choice of venue and finding and contracting various vendors. We first flew to Zagreb, where we got the necessary documents from the American Embassy (papers certifying that were not already married and that our marriage would be recognized in the United States) and afterwards we went to the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where we obtained a special stamp for the papers we received from the embassy. This whole process took us only 3 hours and we were able to catch a flight to Dubrovnik that same afternoon.

On our first day in Dubovnik we went to visit Dubrovnik Palace. We thought it was very nice and Vala definitely would have provided a dramatic setting for the wedding. Nautica was just too small and not as nice as pictured. Labyrinth was also quite attractive; however, after we saw Hotel Excelsior’s Palm Terrace, we knew that we found our dream site. The terrace is situated right on the sea, with a spectacular view of the old town. The hotel, although not as modern as Dubrovnik Palace, was old-school elegant. The following evening, we had dinner at Excelsior (Taverna Rustica) and just loved the food. We met with Ivana, Excelsior’s wedding coordinator, and found out that Excelsior was only slightly more expensive than Dubrovnik Palace. Ivana invited us to take a peak at the wedding they were organizing that weekend (you have a decent view of the Palm Terrace from the Piano Bar, also in the Hotel). What we saw that evening exceeded all our expectations. Later in the week, we met with Ivana again and learned that, in addition to the food, Excelsior would provide basic decorations, print out wedding menus, and seating arrangement charts for free. In addition, we would get a free suite on the night of our wedding. Pretty cool…. We would only need to provide table flowers/decorations or, alternatively, Excelsior could do it for us for an additional fee.

With the dinner venue taken care of, we redirected our energy to finding a ceremony site and booking vendors. One day, by accident, while visiting the Lokrum Island (a beautiful natural preserve, only a 10-minute boat ride from Old Town), we stumbled across a wedding ceremony in their gardens, only meters away from the sea. The ceremony and decorations looked beautiful – flowers and white covered chairs among impressive Roman ruins. We discretely observed from afar; we knew we found a perfect spot. However, after a careful consideration, we realized that planning a ceremony on the island meant that we would have to get someone to decorate the site, bring chairs and covers from Dubrovnik (the only establishment on the island is a small casual restaurant), organize boat transportation for our guests, etc. It would have been too much…So, we hired Nina Bos of Dubrovnik Riviera Weddings to manage the ceremony part. She was very professional and having already organized a wedding on the island, she knew what needed to be done. We still would handle all paperwork, arrange for the city registrar and translator (as required per Croatian law).

By the time we returned to the States, we had already completed the necessary paperwork, found the venue for the ceremony and dinner, florist, contracted the band, and also found accommodations for most of our close friends and family. We found most vendors via word of month, by talking to the locals, and we actively asked everyone we met at different venues whom they recommended (Dubrovcani are exceedingly friendly). At home, we printed the invitations, set up our wedding website, decided on a specific flower design, menu and drinks. We decided that our wedding day would unfold like this:

4:00pm: Guests meet at the port in Old Town for boat transportation to Lokrum4:30pm: Wedding Ceremony5:00pm: Champagne and canapés reception (wedding party takes pictures around the island)6:00pm: Boat takes guests back to Dubrovnik 6:30-7:30pm: Cocktail hour at the Piano Bar terrace (wedding party takes pictures in Old Town)7:30-1:00am: Dinner, dancing at the Palm Terrace

We arrived to Dubrovnik five days before the wedding, took care of some last minute details (submitted the original paperwork to the city registrar, as opposed to the faxed copies we initially sent, hired a court translator, and sent the seating arrangements to Excelsior). We also had the rehearsal dinner and planned some pre-wedding activities for our guests.

The wedding day was just gorgeous: sunny weather, spectacular settings, and excellent service at Excelsior and also by Nina on the island. Now, five months later, our friends and family still talk about it as the best wedding they have ever witnessed. And my husband and I are certain that it was the best and most memorable day of our lives.

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While we were in the planning stages, we were most curious about the prices for each vendor. I hope you will find this list helpful:

Food: We had a 6-course meal at Excelsior for 75 Euro (their menus start at around 60 Euro)Drinks: We bought wines from Nina Bos (6-9 Euro) and Excelsior charged us 5 Euro corkage fee per bottle (7 Euro for sparkling wines). This way we saved significantly. Soft drinks were provided by the hotel at about 1.5 Euro per glass.

Band: We hired a 5-member band called Dariva and paid 1000 Euro. They played from 8:30pm until 12:45am. They were great performers and entertainers, knew a lot of songs (both American and former-Yugo). Whatever our guests requested, they were able to play well!

Flowers: 50 Euro Bride’s bouquet, 35 Euro bridesmaid’s bouquets, 40 Euro flowers for each table at Kike flower shop in Old Town. The flowers looked very nice, however, the arrangements did not look much like the pictures from the magazine which I provided to the florist beforehand. More generally, bouquets and table arrangements start at around 15-20 Euro and depend on the type of flowers requested. If you choose to mix various green fillers with flowers, you can save significantly (for example mixing roses and baby breath can lower the price by 10 or more Euros per bouquet/table arrangement)

Photographer: 600 Euro – he took pictures of the ceremony and dinner. Between the two events, he took pictures of the bride and groom around the island and in the Old Town. The package included a 70-page album and picture CD with about 450 shots. He did an excellent job and everyone raves about our pictures. We only wish that he took a few more creative pictures during dinner and dancing.

Videographer: 400 Euro – he is the photographer’s brother. He is quite talented, but I think he is still learning about wedding videography. We are happy to have the video and the price was very good. However, he did not capture some important aspects of the event (grooms’ father speech, for example).

Boat: Nina Bos hired an attractive oldtimer boat -- which could seat 53 persons -- to take the guests to the island and back. The boat cost us 700 Euro.

String quartet: 400 Euro for about 2 hours (ceremony and reception cocktails). The players were the lead violinists from the Dubrovnik Symphony and did a superb job.

Cake: Our very delicious cake was made by Excelsior pastry chef for about 2 Euro per person. Excelsior does not offer hard marzipan cakes in extravagant shapes, but the presentation is still very dramatic as the pastry chef wheels it out on a cart with sparklers.

Hair and make-up: My bridesmaids and I did our hair, make up, and manicure at the beauty studio Ana (tucked away in a small alley about 50 meters away from Pile Gate – just ask for directions any woman who works around there). The cost was about 100 Euro per person; we were all very happy with the final product. Make sure that you book your appointment several weeks in advance. I have heard that the hair salon at Dubrovnik Palace is very good, but I haven’t tried it.

Finally, if you publish your email address on this board, I would be more than happy to send you a link to our website where we posted all of our wedding pictures.

Good luck!Sanja

« Last Edit: June 05, 2007, 07:01:32 pm by mia0514 »

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mares30

Thanks so much sanja - that's really helpful. we will marry in july 2007; we have almost fully decided on labirint restaurant - but i'm getting swayed a bit towards palm terrace........i think the factors which favour labirint are the fact that it's within walking distance of st blaise nad sponza palace, and that guests can continue to party at the nightclub (my younger brothers in particular will want somewhere to go post midnight!!) ; however, the lay out of tables etc looks much nicer at the palm terrace..... decisions, decisions!! we'd really appreciate a look at your photos if you don't mind. our e-mail is mari.justin@hotmail.com..... we are working with nina and finding her most professional and helpful; but all input and guidance is most appreciated; so sincere thanks once again. mares30

hokey32

Thanks so much for your post - very informative and helpful. I'm getting married in Dubrovnik in August 2007 and have also more or less decided on the Labirint because of it's proximity to St. Blaises church. I would love to see your photos, it would give me an idea of how ours will turn out - hopefully!

Shelly H

Wow, your wedding day sounded absolutely amazing and your post was so helpful. We also fell in love with Dubrovnik after spending our holidays there in 2005. We will be getting married in Dubrovnik in September 2007 at St. Blaises church. We were also looking at the Palm Terrace as a venue for our reception but I think your email may have just confirmed that for us!I was beginning to wonder where we would get our hair and make up done, so thank you so much for the tip about the beauty salon Ana.I would love to see your photos, if you don’t mind. My email address is <michellehynes05@hotmail.com>Thanks again for all the information!

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Chuds

I hope to marry in Dubrovnik in Oct 2007, I think we have a lead on most aspects of the day, however - operating from a tight budget means our guest list may be decided by the cost of catering. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone were to have any advice/contact with regard to this. if a full meal is very costly we are happy to go with buffet/snack option. Any help would really be welcome...Many thanks

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Ann-Marie

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your wedding experiences with us. We too are getting married in Dubrovnik in Sept. Haven't yet looked into venue's for reception, better get our skates on! Would be very greatful if you could also forward me a link to your wedding photo's. My email address is peaburke@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks again.

Ivvy80

We are getting married in Dubrovnik in August this year and have booked the Palm Terrace and also the boat cruise to Lokrum after our church ceremony. We are also working with Nina Bos who is fantastic.

I would love to see your photos if you could send them to my email which is iradas@internode.on.net.au